Serena thrashes Vesnina to reach Wimbledon final

USA’s Serena Williams shakes hands with Russia’s Elena Vesnina after winning their match REUTERS

LONDON (Reuters):  A Champagne cork popped somewhere on Centre Court four games into Serena Williams’s Wimbledon semi-final and while it was a tad premature, her 6-2 6-0 thrashing of Elena Vesnina suggested she could celebrating something special come Saturday.

The top-seeded American will be taking nothing for granted, having seen her bid to match Steffi Graf’s modern era record of grand slam titles stuck one short on 21 for a year, but it was a menacing show of strength, albeit against an overawed opponent.

She dropped only three points on serve in an embarrassingly one-sided 49 minutes -- crunching down one 123mph delivery that topped the women’s speed charts at this year’s tournament.

From the moment the 34-year-old nonchalantly broke serve in the opening game the writing was on the wall for a leaden-footed Vesnina appearing in her first grand slam semi-final.

By the time the latecomers took their seats two games later Serena was 3-0 ahead and her place in a ninth Wimbledon title already looked in the bag.